Master and Slaves

“…Yu…ki…”

That’s right.

She had appeared in the dream I saw in the elves’ forest.

A person close to me.

That Yuki was in front of my eyes.

And she was suffering.

…Suffering…?

I… I was suffering too…

My body was burning…

My skin was… evaporating…

I couldn’t hear anything…

I couldn’t see anything…

Guaaah!

My voice… wouldn’t come out…

My consciousness was receding.

“Hand it… to me…”

At first that was a voice mixed with noise.

“Hand it to me. Do so, and I shall hear thy wish.”

However it gradually became clearly audible.

Not a voice from outside, a voice from inside.

(My wish… what is a wish…)

I became unable to think anything.

What had I wished for?

To return to the original world?

What is the original world?

Where was I born?

Who am I?

I am…

“…Hiroyukiii!”

At that moment there was a voice.

This time a voice from outside.

A voice I heard even though I should not have been able to hear.

It was familiar.

(Yuki…)

I felt as if I muttered that even though my voice should no longer come out.

Memories with Yuki that I should have forgotten ran around like a revolving lantern.

It was the same as the dream I saw in the elves’ forest.

Yuki’s face came back to me.

A laughing face, an angry face, a crying face.

And… a suffering face.

At that moment it overlapped with the face of the woman in front of me that I had seen just before being swallowed by the light.

That was Yuki.

Yuki was suffering.

(So that Yuki doesn’t suffer…)

I ended up saying that out loud.

“That wish, I shall grant.”

A voice could be heard from inside my body.

It was a voice so heavy it crushed me, so dazzling it made my eyes swim, and so mighty it made me look small.

I could tell my flesh was being regenerated.

However I could not move it.

As if I were being controlled, my arms, my legs moved on their own.

I could see outside, but it was just like watching television.

If I compared it, it felt like being inside a robot being controlled by someone.

The image shown on the screen showed several dozen ogres coming toward me.

When the “me” in that screen noticed an ogre coming from the right, he stretched his right hand toward the ogre and muttered one word.

“Flare.”

At that instant a heat wave was generated around me and advanced outward.

The ogres struck by the heat wave became ash in the blink of an eye.

The women who had been bound to those ogres were thrown onto the ground just as they were.

The hooded enemy on the castle walls used Yuki and chanted magic.

(Yukiii!)

Seeing Yuki suffer I ended up shouting.

However that voice could not be heard outside.

The hooded enemy apparently chanted barrier magic, and by that the heat wave was blocked.

When “I” saw that, he stretched his right hand toward the hooded enemy.

“Prominence.”

Together with that voice a flame like a red dragon the same thickness as “my” arm flew out writhing toward the hooded enemy and Yuki.

It stabbed in a straight line into Yuki’s body.

Then it pierced through and burned the hooded enemy’s left shoulder.

(Yukiii!)

I shouted Yuki’s name again.

Yuki’s body was burned black and did not so much as twitch.

(Ku!)

The hooded enemy groaned as if in pain, grabbed Yuki’s neck with his right hand, and fled backward.

“I” saw that off composedly and advanced toward the town while walking slowly.

(Why! Why…)

“I released her from suffering. That was thy wish.”

(Wrong! This isn’t… this isn’t what I wished for!)

“What thou wished. If one lives one suffers. Then only death is salvation.”

(Wrong! There should also be salvation precisely because one lives!)

“…Very well. Thou mayest watch from there.”

Saying that, “I” put his right hand on the town gate.

The gate turned red from where the hand was placed and melted.

Immediately it became red and sludgy like iron inside a furnace.

Stepping over that, “I” entered the town.

Inside the town was hell itself.

On both sides of the road continuing inward from the gate, impaled corpses were displayed just as they were.

Large black birds like crows swarmed those corpses and pecked them with their beaks.

Countless flies were flying.

I could not smell, but there was probably a considerable stench of death.

If I were here in person I might have fainted at the excessive scene.

However “I” advanced without minding it.

Without even brushing away the flies flying around.

Without looking as if he minded the corpses rolling at the roadside.

He just advanced ahead matter-of-factly.

Demonic beasts and magic beasts such as ogres, orcs, and gargoyles attacked from the front, both sides, and behind, but he dodged and parried all of them and sank them with a single blow of one hand.

I no longer knew where the one-handed sword I had been holding had gone.

Because all my clothes had burned, I was wearing nothing.

“I,” in that out-of-place appearance, let no one approach and walked grandly down the middle of the road.

(What do you intend to do from now?)

Where “I” was heading was a large mansion towering in the center of the town.

It was built sturdily enough that you could call it a castle.

“I,” who arrived there, melted the iron gate again and went inside.

(Hey! Answer!)

“I go to grant thy wish.”

(What does that mean…?)

“The thing called ’Yuki’ is still suffering. I go to release that.”

(Hey, wait!)

I understood what that meant.

In other words she had become someone’s Dule.

And they would probably kill her together.

(Wait! That’s enough! I’ll do it! Switch! Switch with me!)

I couldn’t leave it to this one.

He was certainly strong, but if I left it to this one I didn’t know what he would do.

If she was still alive I would…

I wanted to save Yuki somehow.

So I wanted to switch with “me.”

However…

There was no reply from “me.”

He just walked.

If there was an enemy there he slaughtered them with one hand, if there was a wall there he put a hand on it and melted it, literally removed obstacles, and just headed in a straight line toward the destination matter-of-factly.

I could neither stop that nor quicken his steps.

I could only watch.

Eventually “I” came out into a wide courtyard.

It also served as a training ground for soldiers, perhaps. It was a place like a wide empty lot with almost no grass growing.

In the center of that was a hooded figure.

No, he was not wearing it now.

He was a dark-skinned man with long ears.

(An elf…?)

I said that, but I noticed something different.

Elves have white skin, and the color of their hair and eyes is green.

Against that, the man in front of me had dark skin, and the color of his hair and eyes was a dull gray.

That elf-like one had no left hand and was sitting on the ground holding his left shoulder with his right hand.

He did not so much as twitch while hanging his head.

However what I was interested in now was not that one.

The strange creature in front of him.

It was dressed in a way I had never seen before.

If I had to say, it was a pose like a bee turning its rear forward to threaten.

But there was no stinger on the rear, nor wings on the back.

And it was holding a transparent round thing like a water bubble against its belly.

(!)

I could see a woman inside that water bubble.

That woman was restrained by tentacles and having her sensitive places toyed with.

In her vagina, rear, and mouth, thick tentacles imitating male members were repeating piston movement.

The water bubble seemed to be filled with water. She occasionally warped her face as if in pain while blowing bubbles from her mouth.

Seeing that face…

(Yuki!)

Seeing that face I shouted her name.

That voice should not have been audible outside.

However Yuki inside the water bubble turned toward me.

No, toward “me.”

At the same time the creature taking Yuki in also turned this way.

Then it opened its mouth wide.

Yuki inside the bubble began to suffer, flailing her body.

(Yuki!)

I could only shout.

That was frustrating.

Eventually Yuki convulsed violently.

At that moment a poisonous purple water bubble was spat from the strange creature’s mouth.

It headed this way in a straight line while spinning like a cannonball.

“I” dodged that without difficulty.

The purple water bubble hit the wall behind and smoke rose.

When the poisonous purple smoke cleared, the wall could be seen melting.

If it had hit “me,” would I melt?

I ended up swallowing spit.

However “I,” whether he knew my fear or not, pressed steadily toward the strange creature.

Perhaps sensing danger to its body, the strange creature made Yuki suffer again and again and spat several purple water bubbles toward me at high speed.

“I” advanced while easily dodging all of them.

The strange creature stepping back little by little made the tentacles making Yuki suffer writhe even more strangely.

Then this time it kept putting out poison water like water from a hose.

“I” jumped, stepped on the strange creature’s head from above, and landed on the other side.

The strange creature lost its balance and pitched forward.

“I” turned around and thrust his right hand in from the strange creature’s back.

Then when he grabbed something he pulled it out by force.

What that hand was gripping was Yuki’s neck.

However “my” right hand melted from the strange creature’s bodily fluids and fell to the ground together with Yuki.

I had no pain.

And “I” did not seem to be feeling pain.

“Flare.”

I turned my left hand toward the strange creature.

A shock wave ran from that hand, and all of the strange creature’s bodily fluids vanished.

That was not all.

Almost all of the contents vanished, and what remained was only a shell of the strange creature as if it had molted.

After that there was only Yuki lying there breathing faintly.

“I” slowly turned around and looked at the elf-like one.

The elf-like one wore a frightened expression and stepped back.

“D-don’t come… don’t come! Monster!”

The elf-like one pointed his left hand toward me.

O Ifrit, Fairy King of Flame! Burn to ash all that blocks my path!

“Evocation Ifrit!”